


Your Name, My Name

by CaptainDunsel



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coke Bottle AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-17
Updated: 2014-09-17
Packaged: 2018-02-13 13:01:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2151669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainDunsel/pseuds/CaptainDunsel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The blond-haired young man in front of him in the line had been peering at the coke bottle in McCoy's hands for a good while, and didn't seem to be even trying to be subtle about it - odd, and not only because he was holding in his hands a bottle of his own, completely identical."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is one that I've been calling "The Coke Bottle AU" - I saw [this](http://scientist-left-to-our-own-demise.tumblr.com/post/94128394259/ok-but-the-having-each-others-names-on-coke-bottles) post and wanted to write my own version of it, so here we are. I hope you enjoy this silly little thing!

The blond-haired young man in front of him in the line had been peering at the coke bottle in McCoy's hands for a good while, and didn't seem to be even trying to be subtle about it - odd, and not only because he was holding in his hands a bottle of his own, completely identical.  
Soon McCoy couldn't hold his tongue and lifted an eyebrow at the stranger:  
"...Something wrong?"  
The blond-haired man looked up with his stunningly blue eyes and smiled an easy smile.  
"No, no. I was just wondering..." he said, "Does your bottle say 'James'?"  
McCoy examined the label on the bottle.  
"Yeah".  
The smile on the other man's face brightened.  
"Well, that's my name!" he said.  
"People usually call me Jim though, but James is my name".  
"...Good for you," McCoy replied, not really sure what to say - the other man merely chuckled, but seeming to have satisfied his curiosity, he turned around to face the checkout, only a few people between him and it.

**-:-**

"Mine says 'Leonard'," the man, Jim, suddenly said after a while of complete silence between them, still catching McCoy's attention - although Jim didn't see that, as he was looking at the bottle in his hands.  
"Leonard," Jim repeated. "Seriously, who would name their kid 'Leonard'? That's such an old man's name," he laughed as he paid his purchase.  
"In this day and age, who the hell is called Leonard?"  
Jim must have caught the look on McCoy's face, because quite quickly his laughter died down and turned into an awkward smile.  
"You are, aren't you?"  
Leonard McCoy looked at him blankly.  
"Yep".  
"Shit, I'm so sorry," Jim said sheepishly.  
"Just move out of the line, kid, so I can pay my bottle," McCoy replied, already handing the cashier his money.  
"Let me pay it for you," Jim suggested with a cautious smile. McCoy lifted an eyebrow.  
"Please?" Jim asked again, and added, with a spark in the corner of his eye:  
"Let me pay it for you, and we'll have them in the park?"

Damn that kid and his easy smile. McCoy really wasn't the type to share a coke with a stranger in a park, but before he knew it, he found himself agreeing to the other man's invitation.  
"...Fine," he said - Jim's smile widened, "But I'm paying for my own bottle".


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this took longer than I expected, but I just got busy with life. Anyway, here's the second chapter I promised, it picks up straight where the first one left off, and I hope you'll enjoy it!

"I'm a doctor, not some damsel in distress," McCoy added as he handed the cashier his money.  
"Oh?" Jim grinned, his eyebrows rising, "A real sawbones?"  
After receiving his change McCoy joined Jim and the two headed out the shop.  
"In this day and age," McCoy muttered sarcastically, "who says 'sawbones'?"  
"Alright, reprimand received, Doctor," Jim grinned as the pair crossed the street, walking side by side to the edge of the park and walked between the flower arrangements that framed a path leading through the park.

It was a lazy afternoon in the end of the summer and families had gathered to the park to let the children play on the green grass while the adults sat on their picnic blankets and chatted among themselves. Despite the amount of people, McCoy managed to spot an empty bench at the edge of the path, and started heading there - to his surprise, the other man didn't follow.  
"Where are you going?" he called out, getting Jim to stop and listen.  
"The bench is over there," he continued, nodding towards the said bench.  
"And that tree is over there," Jim grinned in reply, pointing at it, "C'mon".  
"James--" McCoy began.  
"Jim," the other corrected.  
"Jim..."  
"Come on," Jim pleaded, "There's even some shade there".  
"And bugs," McCoy replied, crossing his arms on his chest.  
"What? You're not scared, are you?" Jim laughed.  
"No".  
"Then you have nothing to lose. You'll like it, I promise," Jim smiled, making what McCoy recognised as the 'puppy dog' - face, but still he had a hard time resisting it.  
"What if I won't?"  
"Don't be so grumpy," Jim simply said, and then his face brightened.  
"Remember that old Coke commercial? _I'd like to teach the world to sing_..."  
"Jim, what are you--?" McCoy asked, his eyebrows rising in disbelief - _surely the kid wasn't...?  
_ " _In perfect harmony_..."  
Yes, yes he was; singing right in the middle of the park.  
"Jim if you start singing I swear I'll leave," McCoy remarked, and Jim's mouth snapped shut.  
"Fine," he pouted, "But I wasn't that bad, right?"  
"If I say 'no', will you shut up about it?" McCoy asked - he'd be damned if he ever admitted that Jim actually did have a great voice.  
"Maybe?" Jim replied - McCoy rolled his eyes.  
"But come on, let's sit under the tree, enjoy the sunshine, share our cokes and.. that stuff," he grinned with a vague hand gesture which ended with his hand extended towards McCoy.  
McCoy looked at the hand, then the man it was attached to, and let out a sigh - he did not take the offered hand, but walked right past Jim with an exasperated glare, and to the tree. Jim casually shrugged off that glare and joined him.

They sat down to the grass and Jim pressed his head against the tree, closed his eyes and sighed contentedly.  
"You happy now?" McCoy asked as he took off his jacket and laid it down next to him - Jim paid no mind to the sarcastic tone.  
"Yes".  
He opened his coke bottle, and McCoy followed the example.  
"Cheers, Leonard," Jim said, offering toast.  
"Cheers".

As they drank from their own respective bottles, McCoy took a proper look at the man beside him. Jim had chosen a spot in the sun, and what a perfect spot it was - with the rays of sun playing on his skin and colouring his hair golden, this young man was proving to be quite a sight - the industrial lighting of the shop had not done him justice. Perhaps it was the summer air and the slight breeze playing in his hair, but McCoy found himself warming up to the kid he had first had suspicions about.  
"We've really got to give you a nickname," Jim said after swallowing, looking at the bottle in his hands.  
"Why?" McCoy asked, "Is my name that bad?"  
"No," Jim pondered a little absent-mindedly before turning to the older man with a bright smile, "but you'd deserve a nickname - something cool".  
"Really, Jim?" McCoy raised an eyebrow.  
"You said you were a doctor, right? Do people call you 'Doc'?" Jim asked as if he hadn't noticed the other man's question.  
"I hope not," McCoy retorted.  
"You're right - it's not cool anyway," Jim pondered with a click of his tongue.  
"Doctor. Doctor Leonard. Surgeon - you _were_ a surgeon, right?"  
With a mouthful of coke, McCoy could only nod, but he probably wouldn't have had time to say anything - Jim was barely pausing to hear an answer anyway.  
"Surgeon. Sawbones. Sawbones… bo-- Bones!”  
Jim looked at him, blue eyes gleaming like he had just discovered the secrets of the universe - McCoy, on the other hand, didn't understand any of them.  
"What?"  
"Hey, you're already answering to it," Jim beamed.  
"Answering to what?" McCoy still didn't know what the hell the man was on about.  
"Your new nickname, Bones," Jim replied, his voice a bit mischievous. McCoy raised an eyebrow.  
"Seriously?"  
“Why not?” Jim asked, a light-hearted but genuine question.  
McCoy looked at him, really wishing he could find a good answer to that, but, unfortunately, he had to admit that nothing came to mind – to himself, that is. To Jim, he said nothing, merely gave him a bit of an amused snort in response as he turned his gaze away, taking a swig from his bottle.  Jim’s grin widened.  
“I knew you’d like it,” he remarked.  
“How could you possibly know that?” McCoy asked, “You don’t even know _me_ ”.  
“And whose fault is that?” Jim retorted.  
McCoy turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow, and he couldn’t help but let out a laugh at the slightly accusing look on the other man’s face.  
“Well, you could’ve asked,” he said in return.  
“Alright – what’s your favourite colour, _Bones_?” Jim asked with a snide undertone.  
“ _My favourite colour_?” McCoy repeated, “What is this? Elementary school?”  
“I’m just trying to get to know you,” Jim replied with a casual shrug.

McCoy couldn’t decide whether the young man was serious about it or not - and yet, he was so easy to talk to, and hell, he even managed to make McCoy laugh; so the doctor decided to answer this silly question.

**-:-**

"...Okay, but now I've really got to go," Jim said – that took McCoy by surprise. He hadn’t even noticed time passing as they had moved on from talking about favourite colours to talking about their pasts and futures and the weather and their ambitions, space and Earth and everything in between. The sparkle in Jim’s blue eyes had been so captivating as he had spoken about the stars that McCoy had failed to notice the sun beginning to set behind them – and McCoy didn’t even particularly like hearing about space; it was disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence, and yet… Jim seemed to inspire some sort of courage in him. Perhaps Jim’s adventurousness was contagious – McCoy definitely wanted to find out if it was.  
As Jim stood up, his hand sliding away from McCoy's - the doctor hadn't even noticed him putting it there, but was already missing the warmth of it. But, albeit a bit reluctantly, he followed Jim's example of standing up from their spot under the tree, picking up his jacket from the ground and then dusting off his clothes.  
"I, um...” Jim began, ”I'm really sorry to cut this short, but I've really gotta run now".  
McCoy barely had time to lift his gaze to catch the sheepish smile on Jim's face before he had already turned around.  
"I hope we'll see again?" And with that, he had begun to jog through the grass towards the street around the park.  
"I don't even have your number!" McCoy yelled after him.  
"I think you do!" Jim yelled back, a wink following his mysterious statement, but before McCoy could ask what the hell he had meant, Jim had disappeared in to the traffic.

McCoy sighed. He really had thought everything had gone well – they had talked for hours under the tree, but now Jim was leaving him with his vague 'I hope we'll see again'? McCoy knew what that meant.  
He allowed himself to look after Jim for a little while longer, then shook his head and turned around to leave.  
With heavy steps he walked through the grass, shoving his hands to his jacket pockets and... _what the hell?  
_ McCoy grabbed the neatly-folded paper between his fingers and pulled it out of his pocket.  
 _But he was sure his pockets had been empty?  
_ He unfolded the paper, and a smile rose to his lips.  
 _Well, I'll be damned..._  
It was the coke label with his name, and on the other side:

_Bones_  
 _Call me_  
 _\- Jim_

_And a phone number._  
McCoy snorted with a grin and shook his head - perhaps he was getting a little too cynical.  
He folded the paper again and put it in his pocket, but didn't let go of it until he got home.

**-:-**

Later that evening, he stared at the paper for the umpteenth time before sighing and dialling the number. The phone rang a couple of times - when it was picked up, the one on the other end barely had time to answer before McCoy started talking.  
"Yes, I know about the three-day rule," he said, "But screw that - would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow?"  
A moment of silence, and then  
"Well that took you long enough," was Jim's amused response, "Pick me up at eight".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (This came out a bit different than I expected, but... oh well.)

**Author's Note:**

> This is a one-shot for now, but I may write a second chapter, if anyone's interested.


End file.
